News report states that at a time when the woes of the fishing industry and the community are on the rise, institutions working in the fisheries sector need to refocus according to the priorities of the stakeholders. It also mentioned that CIFT, Kochi, is working towards the betterment of the fish harvest sector with projects on design and development of crafts and gear for marine and inland water systems.
The report said that CIFT has supported the fishing industry by providing the standards for netting, netting yarn and netting twine used for fishing and standardisation of fishing gear accessories. The institute is giving special attention on the identification of substitutes for expensive and scarce wood used for construction of boats, fuel saving devices for operation of fishing vessels, ecofriendly technologies for responsible fishing and low-energy fishing technologies for the traditional sector.
It is fact that the fuel-efficient fishing vessels have been a major demand of the fishermen. A 15.5 m multi-purpose deep sea fishing vessel Sagarkripa with steel hull was designed and developed by CIFT with energy saving features. The technology designed by the institution has led to standardisation of fishing vessels across the country.
Almost 80 percent of the nearly 59,000 mechanised crafts constituting the small-scale mechanised fleet of India are largely based on 12 standard designs developed by CIFT. CIFT’s bycatch reduction device (BRD) helps in reducing the catch of non-targeted and unwanted species of fish in shrimp trawling.
